Hi Cyndi, thanks so much for the plant list. Quite a few of these I have --
just one or two plants. I'm pretty well up on what the natives around here
are. My over-arching problem is the poor soil, for just about everything!
which I am not likely to do a good job remedying at this point in my life.
I have several salvia and lavenders are doing very well, also catmints and
echinacea (not "dry", I know). Also have a phlomis planted last fall that
is going great guns. My main shrubs are cistus --- they do super. Once
again did not get any poppies planted -- would love to get them naturalized.
HAve one penstemon which sank last year but is coming back well this spring
and am going to try more. I actually had a native buckwheat when I lived
the Bay Area and it did great -- have not managed to acquire any more for
here but I love the plants. Blooming wild now are muleears, a local
achillea, and a patch of monardella just about to pop, some brodaeia (not
sure which). Thanks for the info!

I have lots of salvias - salvia clevelandii looks the best, also s.
greggii is happy as it's reseeding itself, s.leucophylla, s.
pachyphylla, s.dorrii, s. spathacea. Some penstemons - p.palmeri does
the best it also is reseeding, p.strictus, p.heterophyllus. I've tried
other penstemons but they don't last long. Russian sage, texas ranger,
hesperaloe, buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum and e.fasciculatum), Apache
plume (Fallugia paradoxa), spanish lavender, common sage (but it's
struggling), caesalpinia gilliesii, and zauschneria. I have desert
willow (Chilopsis linearis) and silk tree (Albizia julibrissin),
although the silk trees were there before I decided it was a xeriscape.
They've managed okay. Couple of agaves but the gophers are eventually
going to eat them as they've done all the rest, and one opuntia cactus
that may or may not recover from the Big Freeze. I put out Bulbine
frutescens as well but I think that's going to end up as an annual. I
have one ornamental grass but I can't remember what it is, probably some
variety of pennisetum. Dune primrose (Oenothera deltoides) appeared in
the garden and is rapidly spreading, it does not seem to choke out
anything so I leave it as it's quite attractive in bloom. Usually there
are California poppies but not this year, I should have watered during
the winter. I would love to have Datura but so far none of the seed pods
I've collected have produced any plants, and I'd like ceanothus but
haven't been able to get one to live so far.
If you're looking for CA natives check out the Las Pilitas web site,
they are very informative about what grows where - pages and pages of
plant communities are listed. Plug in your ZIP code and they will tell
you what is native to your area.
Cyndi
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [mailto:owner-gardenchat@hort.net] On
Behalf Of sundrops@earthlink.net
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 8:30 AM
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Rain
Cyndi, what do you have in your dry garden? We're not in the same
planting zones, but thought there might be some overlap and ideas for me
-- --Barb, Grass Valley CA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT" <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 8:13 AM
Subject: RE: [CHAT] Rain

No rain here, and likely no chance of any until next year. We went
camping in the mountains this weekend and while there is water in most

of the streams it is very dry up there. My sister says she will be
surprised if they don't close the whole area around mid-summer.
I planted 33 chile pepper plants last night, along with about the same

number of bell peppers on Friday. Both beds are covered with Reemay
but I ran out so I had to uncover the soybeans to take care of the

peppers.

Hope the rabbits don't go after the soybean plants but they are good
size by now so I am not too too apprehensive. We haven't yet received
the zapper thing my husband ordered so I'm still protecting everything

with Reemay and chicken wire.
Aside from the lettuce and the peas, most things in the veggie garden
look okay. But I haven't uncovered the corn in weeks so I don't know
what's going on under there, I'll have to check it out before I go to
New Mexico next week. I got most of the roses deadheaded and that's
about all I've managed to do in the front. Husband says if I leave him

a list while I'm gone he will do some work in the evenings. What a
guy. He can recognize grass so perhaps I'll ask him to weed the dry
garden, if I say pull only grass it should be safe enough.
Cyndi
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [mailto:owner-gardenchat@hort.net] On
Behalf Of james singer
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 3:53 PM
To: Garden Chat
Subject: [CHAT] Rain
Two showers today, but taken together, less than a half inch of water.
Of course, if we could get that every day, it would be nice. I
wouldn't have to worry about watering the stuff in pots and hanging

baskets.

And speaking of hanging baskets, I noticed today that our Garten Perle

cherry tomato has about a dozen green fruits. This is one T&M
recommended for hanging baskets, so it looks like they were right
although the plant is a bit rangy at this point. Maybe it will get
droopy as it gets bigger.
Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.1 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Sunset Zone 25
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]
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